DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO MOBBING IN COMPARATIVE LAW: ANALYSIS OF WORKPLACE HARASSMENT AS A PSYCHO-LEGAL PATHOLOGY

Year 2025, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 175 - 222, 30.12.2025

Neval Yılmaz

Abstract

This study examines workplace mobbing as a global psycho-legal pathology, framing it as a “hidden pandemic” with severe consequences for individual health and organizational well-being. Utilizing a comparative law methodology, the article analyzes and contrasts the "treatment protocols" developed by various legal systems. The analysis identifies distinct approaches: the specific, "prescription-based" model of France; the proactive, "prophylactic" model of Sweden; the holistic model of Belgium; and the fragmented, "symptomatic" models found in Common Law systems and Türkiye. A key finding is the superior efficacy of legal frameworks that prioritize prevention over purely reactive, punitive sanctions. The study argues for reconceptualizing mobbing as a legal "syndrome," requiring a holistic diagnostic approach. Consequently, it recommends that Türkiye enact a standalone anti-mobbing law focused on mandatory psychosocial risk analysis and other preventative mechanisms to foster healthier work environments.

Keywords

Mobbing , Comparative Law , Psychosocial Risks , Workplace Health and Safety , Duty of Care

References

• Braithwaite, John. Restorative Justice and Responsive Regulation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. https://johnbraithwaite.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/SSRN_2016_BraithwaiteJ-revised-51.pdf. (Access Date: 04.10.2025)
• Einarsen, Ståle, Helge Hoel, and Guy Notelaers. "Measuring Exposure to Bullying and Harassment at Work: Validity, Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties of the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised." Work & Stress 23, no. 1 (2009): 24–44.
• Einarsen, Ståle, Helge Hoel, Dieter Zapf, and Cary L. Cooper, eds. Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace: Developments in Theory, Research, and Practice. 2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1201/EBK1439804896.
• Einarsen, Ståle, Helge Hoel, Dieter Zapf, and Cary L. Cooper. "The Concept of Bullying and Harassment at Work: The European Tradition." In Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace: Developments in Theory, Research, and Practice, 2nd ed., edited by Ståle Einarsen, Helge Hoel, Dieter Zapf, and Cary L. Cooper, 3–39. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2011.
• Einarsen, Ståle. "The Nature and Causes of Bullying at Work." International Journal of Manpower 20, no. 1/2 (1999): 16–27.
• Eurofound, Sixth European Working Conditions Survey – Overview report (Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2016), 56. Available at: https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/publications/all/sixth-european-working-conditions-survey-overview-report (Access Date: 04.10.2025)
• Fischinger, Philipp S. "Mobbing: The German Law of Bullying." Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal 32, no. 1 (2010): 153–78.
• Günay, Cevdet İlhan. İş ve Sosyal Güvenlik Hukuku Dersleri. 6. baskı. Ankara: Yetkin Yayınları, 2020.
• Hoel, Helge, and Dieter Zapf. "The Role of the Work Environment in Workplace Bullying." In Bullying and
• Harassment in the Workplace: Developments in Theory, Research, and Practice, 2nd ed., edited by Ståle
• Einarsen, Helge Hoel, Dieter Zapf, and Cary L. Cooper, 295–312. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2011.⁸ Pınar Tınaz, İşyerinde Psikolojik Taciz (Mobbing) (İstanbul: Beta Basım Yayım, 2013).
• Hoel, Helge, David G. R. A. F. G. D. C. Condé, and Ståle Einarsen. "The Economic Costs of Bullying and Harassment at Work." In Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace: Developments in Theory, Research, and Practice, 3rd ed., edited by Ståle Einarsen, Helge Hoel, Dieter Zapf, and Cary L. Cooper, 25–50. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2020.
• International Labour Organization, Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190). Available at: https://normlex.ilo.org/dyn/nrmlx_en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C190 (Access Date: 04.10.2025)
• International Labour Organization, Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190), Article 9.
• Keashly, Loraleigh. "North American Perspectives on Bullying at Work." In Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace: Developments in Theory, Research, and Practice, 2nd ed., edited by Ståle Einarsen, Helge Hoel, Dieter Zapf, and Cary L. Cooper, 41–71. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2011.
• Konrad Zweigert and Hein Kötz, An Introduction to Comparative Law, 3rd ed., trans. Tony Weir (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), 34-40.
• Leymann, Heinz. "Mobbing and Psychological Terror at Workplaces." Violence and Victims 5, no. 2 (1990): 119–26.
• Leymann, Heinz. "The Content and Development of Mobbing at Work." European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 5, no. 2 (1996): 165–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594329608414853.
• Leymann, Matthias B., and Annelie Gustafsson. "Mobbing at Work and the Development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders." European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 5, no. 2 (1996): 251–75.
• Marie-France Hirigoyen, Le harcèlement moral au travail (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2014), 105-110. Hirigoyen, bu yasanın çıkmasında öncü rol oynayan psikiyatrist ve yazarlardandır.
• Noelle-Neumann, Elisabeth. The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion – Our Social Skin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. https://labiblioteca.mx/llyfrgell/2576.pdf. (Access Date: 04.10.2025)
• Rayner, Charlotte. "The Cost of Bullying." In Bullying and Emotional Abuse in the Workplace: International Perspectives in Research and Practice, edited by Ståle Einarsen et al., 189–204. London: Taylor & Francis, 2003.
• Robertson-Smith, Gemma, and Carl Markwick. Employee Engagement: A Review of Current Thinking. Report 469. Brighton: Institute for Employment Studies, 2009. Available at: https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/system/files/resources/files/469.pdf. 21. (Access Date: 04.10.2025) Workplace Bullying Institute, 2021 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey, Available at: https://workplacebullying.org/2021-wbi-survey/. 4. (Access Date: 04.10.2025)
• World Health Organization and International Labour Organization, WHO/ILO policy brief on mental health at work (Geneva: WHO, 2022), 5-7. Available at: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240057944 (Access Date: 04.10.2025)
• Yamada, David C. "Workplace Bullying and American Employment Law: A Ten-Year Progress Report and Assessment." Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal 32, no. 1 (2010): 251–84.
• Zapf, Dieter. "Organisational, Work Group Related and Personal Causes of Mobbing/Bullying at Work." International Journal of Manpower 20, no. 1/2 (1999): 70–85. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437729910268669.